An online synchronized content management system, such as DROPBOX from Dropbox Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., allows users to store their content items in an online user account that can be accessed from any computing device. Users can upload content items from one computing device to their online user account and access the uploaded content items from other computing devices. Users can also share uploaded content items with other users, to provide other users access to the shared content items from their respective devices.
Users can access the content items from a browser application installed on the user's client device. For example, a user can use a web browser to access the content items from a website of the content management system. Users can also access the content items from a client-side application installed on the user's device. Often, users may have both a web browser application and a client-side application installed on the user's device, which they can use, either together or alone, to access content items on the content management system. The ability to use both types of applications to access content on the content management system can confer various benefits to the user. For example, the client-side application can offer persistent and seamless synchronization of local data with the content management system, while the web browser application may offer a different, web-based experience to the user.
Unfortunately, since the browser application and the client-side application are separate applications, authentication of one application at the user's device does not automatically result in authentication of the other application at the user's device. Accordingly, in order to sign into a user account on both the browser application and the client-side application, a user would typically duplicate the sign-in process from both applications. The user would provide the same user credentials twice in order to authenticate from both applications. This process can be tedious and time-consuming for the user. And failure to authenticate from both applications can result in a limited overall experience for the user. For example, without proper authentication from one application, the user's experience from that application can be limited by access restrictions.